Reeve looked away from him. It seemed he was determined not to show
any signs of emotion.

"If you hate me then you can do whatever you like to me."

Denzel shook his head.

**

It was Sunday. When I woke up, I was in my new home in the Fifth
Sector. There was a mattress that I was sure wasn't there yesterday.
Denzel went to sleep on it. Next to his pillow was a memo and a
piece of sweet bread.

"I'm at the office. I'll come to see how you're doing once in a
while. Don't go too far. Everyone is very nerve-racked just now so
it's dangerous. More importantly, it would be very hard to find you.
You're a pretty important boy. P.S. I borrowed the mattress from the
neighbour so please make sure to return it. - Arkham."

The imagery of the Seventh Sector falling down was shown on the TV
many times. The announcement from Shinra that Midgar was safe now
could also be heard repeatedly. My parents might be dead so even
though they say it's safe, I couldn't agree with them. I really
wonder if everyone will be able to live in happiness together
because it's safe. Will I be able to blend in with them? Just as
Denzel was about to eat his bread, he noticed the cream jutting out
of it. Anger surged in him. He smashed the bread onto the TV then
flew out of his house.

It was quiet. In the centre of Midgar he could see the highrise
building of Shinra. Mother and father might be alive and have gone
to work together there.

During this hour, Denzel's parents must be busy. That's why they
can't come out. Since this area is Shinra residence then maybe some
of their friends are around. Denzel wasn't very good talking with
grownup strangers but, he was going to pull up his courage and try.

First he made for the house to the right and rang the doorbell.
There was no answer. He tried opening the door.

The house wasn't locked so he peered in and said, "Hello?"

He waited for a little while but no answer came. It seemed Arkham
borrowed the mattress from this house. Denzel was wondering if
they're no different from a thief since they just borrowed it at
will. Are they going to be forced to live on as thieves or
something?

Denzel moved onto the left house. The house opposite. A house
further in. Everyone was on the lookout there. He went to go have a
look at another house further away. Most of the houses had a piece
of paper on their door with a contact address written on it if
anyone was looking for shelter.

No one was there. It didn't seem possible that his parents were at
their office. If they were, they would have come here. Even if it
was impossible for Denzel's father to come, his mother would
certainly have.

The hope he held onto was shattered as he walked away. Before he
knew it, Denzel noticed he had lost his way. He couldn't remember
how he got here. Tears fell from his face but anger stood out more
than his sorrow.

He stopped and sat on the road. His bottom hit something hard. It
was the small model of one of Shinra's airships. Some kid must have
dropped it.

He threw away the model as he thought out loud.

"I hate everyone!"

The sound of glass breaking in a residencial area echoed as a girl's
voice followed.

"Who done that!"

Before he realized what he had done, an old lady from a house in
front of him came out. She wasn't really an old lady but to Denzel,
he couldn't tell the age of any lady.

"Did you do this?!", the old lady said holding onto the model Shinra
airship.

Denzel nodded with a guilty face.

"Why..." the old lady was about to ask.

"Are you crying?"

Denzel shook his head to deny it but he couldn't hide his tears.

"Where's your home?"

He was angry that he couldn't answer her. More tears came flowing
down his face.

"Come inside."

The inside of Ruvi's home was very different to Denzel's and felt
very comfortable. The wallpaper was a pattern full of flowers while
the cushions and sofa also had the same pattern. There was some
artificial flowers for decoration but it was a room that gave a
sense of warmth and tranquility. Denzel looked at Ruvi who was now
sitting on the sofa. She was struggling to patch up the shattered
glass window with a vinyl bag.

"When my son is back, I'll make him fix it properly. This should do
for now."

"Miss Ruvi, I'm sorry..."

"If it wasn't for such times I would have had a hold of your neck
shouting and taken you to see your parents."

"My mum and dad, they're..."

"Don't tell me they just left you behind and ran away."

"They were in the Seventh Sector."

Ruvi stopped what she was doing, squatted down and held Denzel.

After he calmed down, she told him they were going out.

They were going to look for his house. The two of them walked
holding hands. When Denzel reached the age of six, he had stopped
holding hands with his parents. It didn't look cool. But now, he
didn't want to let go no matter what happened he thought to himself.

At headquarters, the Shinra was dealing with the matters of giving
residents a place to stay. Families were given shelter in Junon or
Costa Del Sol. Ruvi remained behind explaining that if she was going
to be alone where she went then it would be best if she stayed at
her own home. Eventually, they found Denzel's house.

"Thank you very much. And about the glass... I'm sorry."

Ruvi nodded silently. Denzel opened the door and went inside as Ruvi
peered in.

"What are you planning to do with a house that doesn't have
anything? Come to my house, OK?"

And that was how Denzel came to live with Ruvi.

When the No. 1 Mako Reactor was destroyed, Ruvi knew that times were
going to be hard so she bought lots of food. The storage shed in her
back garden was full of canned food.

"There's no need to worry when you're prepared."

Ruvi was busy everday. Cleaning the inside of the house, cleaning
the outside surrounding areas, preparing food and sewing. Besides
sewing, Denzel helped with everything. Before he went to sleep, he
read a book. Ruvi on the other hand, read a thick book that looked
difficult to read. When she was asked if it was good or not he
wouldn't answer. He was told it belonged to her son. Ruvi had been
reading the book for over five years now thinking that she might be
able to understand what her son's work was like. She laughed when
she realized the book was like something she read it so that she
could fall asleep.

Ruvi leant Denzel a monster encyclopaedia which she said would be
useful for him to read. It was another thing that belonged to her
son and he seemed to have read it when he was Denzel's age. All the
monsters that was illustrated in full colour had a description next
to them. All pages had the same thing written on them. If you come
across a monster, run away then let an adult know. Denzel wondered
if, that's if, he met a monster just now would all he have to do is
let Ruvi know. But Ruvi didn't seem like she could fight. He
wondered if he'll end up fighting it himself. Could he do it? Could
he win?

He thought that he wasn't any use. That's why his parents left him
and went away.

**

The sunlight grew strong and Denzel was soaked with sweat.

"Man... It's so hot." Reeve said to Johnny.

Denzel took out a hankerchief to wipe away his sweat.

"That's quite a cute pattern. Like a girl's."

"It is. " Denzel said staring at his hankerchief.

**

One morning when Denzel woke up, Ruvi was there holding a shirt by
the collar.

"Wear this. I made this for you but I didn't have many patterns to
make use of."

On the white shirt were patterns with lots of small pink flowers. It
was something that Denzel would usually not be too keen to wear but
he happily changed into it.

"This is something I made because I had too much cloth. Have it."
Ruvi said holding out a hankerchief that had the same pattern.

It seemed she had lots of extra cloth because there were many of the
same hankerchief. Denzel took one and folded it neatly into his rear
pocket.

"And...", Ruvi's smile disappeared, "How should I say this..."

Denzel wondered what she was going to say. The words that he didn't
want to hear the most came floating to his mind. Get out. His body
shook with anxiety at the thought.

"Lets go outside."

Ruvi went outside into the back garden. Denzel hesitated but
followed. Walking over the thickly spread out earth, Denzel went
over to stand next to Ruvi. Ruvi stood gazing at the sky.

Denzel too gazed up at the sky. There was a great black spot in the
sky. It was a very bad omen. During the day, the sky was white and
blue. Everything besides that was no different from the gloom or
worries.

"I don't know anything about it but, it seems it's called Meteo.
It's said that once it impacts with this planet, everything will be
over."

Ruvi went over to the storage shed and took out two cans of food
handing them to Denzel.

"Just how are we going to prepare ourselves with these things."

That day, Ruvi didn't clean, sew or do anything else. She just sat
on the sofa thinking.

When something came to mind, she went on the phone. It seems no one
answered. Denzel thought she must have been calling her son as he
cleaned the interiors and outside. He also wanted to ask about the
impact of Meteo but he couldn't bring himself to ask about it. As
night fell, Ruvi began to clean as if to say she was back to
reality. Denzel, the way you clean isn't any good. What on earth
have you been looking at? It was the usual Ruvi again.

It was night and the two of them sat side by side on the sofa
reading the same book they always did.

Keeping her eyes on the book, Ruvi said, "Denzel. I plan to wait for
the end here. If the planet is to die then it doen't matter where I
am. Everywhere is the same. What are you going to do? If you're
going to go somewhere then I don't mind if you take the food from
the house and go. You're still a child so I think you should decide
where you want to be in the end."

Denzel thought about what Ruvi said deeply. Then he asked the
question he had been longing to ask during the day.

"Is it all right if I stayed here?"

Ruvi looked up from the book and smiled at Denzel.

Ever since then, Ruvi went about as she always did except she didn't
clean the outside. Cleaning the outside became Denzel's job now.

He saw that construction had began on top of the Shinra building.
Before long, a giant cannon was built on the top of the roof. Ruvi
was told that Shinra was going to exterminate Meteo.

"That company is always wrong about something," said Ruvi shaking
her head sadly.

Eventually, the cannon was fired once in some odd direction and
broke down, collapsing to the grounds. Not long after that, Shinra
itself was attacked and was destroyed. Denzel was thinking to
himself what on earth could the monster have been. He couldn't
imagine any monster that could destroy a building but decided
against asking Ruvi. Meteo was in the sky as usual. In other areas,
there was some huge disturbance but Denzel's daily life remained
peaceful.

There were times when he couldn't suppress his thoughts about his
parents and cried but, Ruvi always calmed him down by holding him.

If the end was to come while he slept with Ruvi then he didn't mind.

What took Denzel's peace was not the Meteo but the white waters that
filled him with anger. As a result of the Life Stream that the
planet released, it became the righteous power that destroyed the
Meteo but that thick energy of life also brought destruction to
mankind.

One fated day, Denzel was about to go to sleep with Ruvi. The sound
of a strong wind blowing outside could be heard but it was too much
of a noise to be just the wind. Before long, the whole house began
shaking vigorously.

The end was here. It would be good if it was over quickly, thought
Denzel to himself but time went by and the shaking grew even more
vicious. The sound quietened down and changed as if a train was
speeding pass their house. Denzel held on tightly to Ruvi shutting
his eyes trying to bear it but five minutes was too much.

"Miss Ruvi, I'm scared."

Just as Ruvi was getting up and was about to put the light on, the
flower patterned curtains turned bright white. It was as if the
whole house was engulfed in light.

"Cover yourself with the blanket."

As Ruvi left the bedroom, the shaking grew very violent and the
flowers on top of the chest of drawers fell to the ground. Denzel
flew out of the bed and went after Ruvi.

Ruvi stood there staring at the living room window. It was the
window that Denzel broke, patched up with vinyl. The vinyl was being
inflated as if it was going to break apart. Ruvi ran over to the
window and tried to suppress it with her two hands.

"Denzel! Go back to your room!"

Denzel was shaking. He couldn't move as if his feet were stuck to
the floor. It was me who broke the window. It must be my fault that
something bad is happening. Ruvi left the window and rushed over to
Denzel. He was violently pushed back into the bedroom. Just then,
the vinyl shattered and bright rays of light came flooding into the
house. Screaming, Ruvi closed the door.

"Miss Ruvi!", Denzel cried as he grabbed the doorknob and tried to
open the door.

"Denzel, stop it!"

"But-!" Denzel tried at the doorknob again.

Ruvi stood there with her back towards the door. Feet apart, she was
using both her hands to keep the door closed.

"Keep it closed!"

Around Ruvi, many beams of light burst through the walls and
reflected everywhere. It was as if a glowing snake was running wild
in the room.

I didn't think it was a monster from the monster encyclopaedia. Run
and tell an adult about it. No, in this house, I must stand and
fight.

"Miss Ruvi!" he cried as the light attacked Ruvi. A short moan could
be heard. The light changed its shape into what looked like a thin
piece of rope, forcing its way through the gap between the wall and
Ruvi into the bedroom.